The Cavalier daily :: Thursday, March 12, 1970 :: University of Virginia Library

THERE USED TO BE the contention that Virginia athletes
were students first and athletes second. People thought that no
matter how professional college athletics were, Virginia's athletes
were individuals before they were sheep of the gridiron. But such,
sentimentality amounts to nothing more than naivety. For awhile
we have suspected that the football team and the community in
which they supposedly lived and studied were mutually alienating
themselves, and now we have been shocked into that recognition.

Issued not long ago to the gridders, now knee-deep in spring
drills, was a set of "General Rules and Policies," a specified list of
behavioral standards which the football players are expected to
maintain. For your edification:

A. GENERAL RULES AND POLICIES

(1) There is to be no drinking of alcoholic beverages or smoking during
the season or spring practice. In addition to this, you are not to bee seen
drinking or smoking at public events, anytime.

(2) It is your responsibility to be on time for all practices, meetings, and
any other assignments.

(3) You are to keep your hair well groomed and reasonably cut, and
your face is to be free of facial hair.

(4) Be extremely careful of your language and avoid swearing and
obscene words.

(5) Regular Sunday church attendance (no cuts, please).

(6) You are not to cut classes - excuses at the discretion of your
counseling coach.

(7) You are required to check with your counseling coach once every
two weeks in respect to your academic progress.

(8) Before finalizing your pre-registration schedule, check with Coach
Campbell.

(9) You are not to drop a class without your coach's permission.

B. DRESSING ROOM PROCEDURES

(1) If you have equipment problems, you must report early to the
dressing room, as the Equipment Manager will not have time to assist you
when the rest of the team reports at the normal time.

(2) Hang up all equipment after practice.

C. INJURIES AND THE TRAINING ROOM

Everyone will suit up for practice unless prior permission has been
received from Head Trainer and Head Football Coach. If you are injured
and are not able to suit up, or will be available only for limited duty, you
will, nevertheless, be required to be at practice and observe the group with
which you would normally be working. Be sure every injury, regardless of
how minor it may seem, is reported to the Trainer as soon as possible.

D. DORMITORY PROCEDURES

(1) Keep your room neat and clean.

(2) There are to be no dorm parties during the season or spring practice.
During the off-season, dorm parties are not to be rowdy or unreasonably
loud.

E. DINING ROOM PROCEDURES

(1) You are to be properly dressed in the cafeteria.

(2) Your behavior while in the cafeteria should be of a nature that is not
embarrassing to you, the team, or the coaching staff.

F. PENALTY FOR RULE INFRACTIONS

(1) Disciplinary action will be administered to those who break the
rules at the discretion of the coaching staff.

(2) "Training Rules For Intercollegiate Athletics are considered Rules
of the Institution," (Paragraph No. 2, Atlantic Coast Conference
Grant-In-Aid or Scholarship Application.)

PARAGRAPHS 'B,' 'C,' AND 'D' are fairly straightforward
and deal with standard procedures; but some of the imperatives
listed under "General Rules and Policies" are a little bit too
imposing for our way of thinking. Rule (1) departs from drinking
restrictions in the past in that Coach Blackburn's reward of two
beers for a win succumbs to the rather unrealistic "you are not to
be seen drinking or smoking at public events, anytime." Rule (5)
is, quite frankly, absurd. Going to weekly church services is
indeed a virtuous endeavor and one to be praised, but there can
hardly be any personal satisfaction involved in attending a service
to which one is forced to go. Rules (5)-(9) deal with academic
matters and would appear to be beneficial measures, but such
emphasis on the scholastic side leads one to suspect that not even
a player's school work remains within his own jurisdiction.

Paragraph 'F' is a crucial one, for many players remain in
school precisely via the monetary benefits accorded them in the
grant-in-aid program. It would therefore appear that the Athletic
Department has considerable leverage in conforming their players'
behavior under a potential threat of a loss of scholarship.

Coach Blackburn commented that such a codification of
behavior was a necessary step in order to 'make our Athletic
Program important and competitive." It's not that we object to
the football office's attempt to make the Wahoos more
competitive; indeed the 3-7 of last year was hardly satisfactory
for a school desiring a 'winner.' It's just that we hate to see an
athlete encouraged to sacrifice his opportunity to live and work
in the same communities as the "weenies."

CERTAINLY FOOTBALL is not a game for sophisticates, as a
general rule, and we acknowledge that team discipline in the past,
especially with regard to the drinking restraints and humane
treatment of dormitory property, has been somewhat
lacking. There is such a thing as self-discipline, however, and we
should realize that team unity is hardly effective if imposed from
without.

The University of Virginia is graced with an atmosphere that
we would think is almost ideal to the student/athlete. The
student pressure for the big-time 'winner' is relatively low, while
the school's academic quality affords the student/athlete an
exceptional education. Therefore our proverbial student/athlete
can lead the dual life to which he aspires; he can compete in the
ACC, a conference of no mean quality, and he can pursue his
education, without doing injustice to either endeavor. But we've
previously dismissed that kind of reasoning as naive.

A school has to pay the price for a 'winner,' that's that. We
understand but yet we refuse to passively allow the intellectual
and athletic communities to grow further apart. If mutual
isolation is the price that this institution has to fork up, maybe
we'd better think twice before investing.

We can always hope that the aforementioned regulations are
much less rigid in practice than one would suspect upon perusal,
but would such a hope be justified?